Re: Mind's Eye Re: Aliens, Slavery and Resources

Doing back to UFOs, aliens and so on - the following is an edited
interview with Oliver Sacks.

Your latest book is about hallucinations. Why did you want to write
about them?

I've been fascinated with them for a long time. I've touched on
hallucinations in different ways in earlier books, but there's such a
vast variety, and there are so many causes, so much misunderstanding -
and sometimes so much stigma attached - that I thought it would be
good to bring things together. An additional reason has been the
beautiful neuroimaging in the last 10 years or so, which confirms that
at least simple hallucinations tend to arise in sensory areas which
normally serve perception.

You mentioned stigma. Do most people associate hallucinations with
mental illness?

I think there's a common view, often shared by doctors, that
hallucinations denote madness - especially if there's any hearing of
voices. I hope I can defuse or de-stigmatise this a bit. This can be
felt very much by patients. There was a remarkable study of elderly
people with impaired vision, and it turned out that many had elaborate
hallucinations, but very few acknowledged anything until they found a
doctor whom they trusted. There are all sorts of situations in which
one may have hallucinations. Many people have hallucinations of a sort
before they fall asleep or sometimes just after waking.

What is the difference between hallucination and imagination?

I think you recognise that what you imagine is your own, whereas with
hallucinations there is no sense of you having produced them. One
feels, "What's that? Where did it come from?" I saw this very clearly
many years ago in an old lady who started to hear Irish songs in the
middle of the night. She thought a radio had been left on but couldn't
find the radio. She then thought that a tooth filling was somehow
acting as a transistor. Finally, when certain tunes kept repeating
themselves, all tunes that she knew, she wondered if it was a sort of
radio inside her head, a mechanism not under her control, and
apparently not related to what she was thinking or feeling or doing.
That way of putting things is very common in people with musical
hallucinations.

In the book you share experiences of your "lost years" in California
in the early 60s, when you tried lots of drugs. Why write about this
now?

The primary reason is that what happens with me is a potential source
of information. I will, as it were, use my own case history as I will
use other people's. But perhaps again the fact that these were
encapsulated in a time period, say, between 63 and 67, more than 40
years ago, made me feel easier about describing them.

You experimented with LSD and other hallucinogenics. Have those
experiences informed your work as a neurologist?

I think it made me more open to some of my patients' experiences. For
example, there is something which I think of as stroboscopic vision,
or cinematic vision, where, instead of seeing a scene continuously,
you see a series of stills. I've had that myself on LSD, I've had it
in migraine, and my patients taking L-dopa sometimes describe it, too.
So rather than saying nonsense, or closing my ears, I am open to these
descriptions. Whether these psychedelic drugs made much difference to
me otherwise, I don't know. I'm glad I had the experience. It taught
me what the mind is capable of.

One time you had a conversation with a spider...

With the spider, I should have known that it's impossible. That's one
of the few times when I was completely taken in. The business of
believing and being converted by hallucinations worries me. For
example, a book has just been published by a neurosurgeon who had a so-
called near death experience and is convinced that he saw heaven. I
want to say, strongly, hallucinations aren't evidence of anything, let
alone heaven.

You highlight a tendency for hallucinations, particularly those caused
by epileptic seizures, to feel like religious experiences. Why is
that?

Hallucinations can be very powerful and very persuasive. I think one
may have to fight to deny them weight. There was one case history
which I should have put in the book. A young woman, a physician, had
some of these seemingly revelatory seizures, but she argued with God.
God said: "Don't you believe your senses?" She said: "Not when I'm in
a seizure".

Is there potential for people to follow commands they are "given"
during hallucinations?

It seems probable that Joan of Arc had command hallucinations of a
sort. At first these would just present themselves as figures and
voices and a light to one side, and only later did she feel these
figures were telling her to go and do things.

You also talk about how hallucinations can result from loss of hearing
or vision.

Normally, there's a system of checks and balances in the brain, to
prevent any particular region taking off autonomously. If one loses
these constraints, for example, if one is blind or even blindfolded,
then the visual brain may take off on its own and utilise memory and
imagination to give one hallucinations. I work especially in old-age
homes and see elderly people - I'm now more elderly than many of them
- with hearing and visual impairments, but quite clear mentally. I've
been struck by their tendency to have hallucinations as the sense of
perception is diminished.

You have a visual impairment. Does this influence whether you have
hallucinations?

I have low-level hallucinations all the while. I see geometrical
patterns and proto-letters everywhere. For example, looking up at the
ceiling, as I'm doing now, I see angled forms which look like letters
or words. They form and re-form very rapidly. Gradually it's got more
pronounced. But I can and do ignore it, just as I ignore my tinnitus,
which goes with my deafness. I'm getting like my patients with
auditory and visual impairment. I hope there's no mental impairment
yet. [Laughs]

Do you worry that sharing your patients' stories somehow exploits
them?

I'm on this delicate boundary, and have been for 50 years or so. At
one time I was my own prime accuser. Whenever I saw the word
portrayal, I would misread it as betrayal. First, in addition to any
formal consent, I want to be reassured from what I know of a patient
that they won't be upset by anything.

Do you hope that sharing these stories changes people's perceptions?

I feel that if I describe things respectfully, tenderly and truly,
then this is an important thing to do. It's not voyeurism, it's not
exploitation, but an essential form of knowledge. I think the detailed
case history has no equal in conveying understanding, not only of what
a condition is like, but of the ways in which a person may respond to
a condition. I remember when an opera was made from my book The Man
Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, I said to the librettist, you must go
and see Mrs P - the woman who was mistaken for a hat - and see how she
would feel about this. I watched her watch the opera, wondering
fearfully what she might be thinking. But she came up to me and the
librettist, and said, you have done honour to my husband. I hope in
some sense I can do honour to the patients.

The above is from New Scientist. My own hallucinations these days are
confined to women I like- they aren't erotic or very visual - they
feel like 'travelling'. It feels as real as the long weekend in Rome
with Sue and Ronnie - without the flight discomfort. My dog Max
sometimes flies when his ears start bouncing, though today he was
pouncing in every puddle like a kid in first Wellington's.

On 2 Nov, 19:36, archytas <nwte...@gmail.com> wrote:
> LOL - for all the muffling of ideological fools we need something that
> encourages us that isn't survival in poverty  whether personally
> endured or in terms of the threat we will be dumped into it or pulled
> down by the lazy and unreliable.  Money isn't it - though one can
> imagine, in another life, you may have made your way to the S & L
> hoping for a bonus whilst I dodged my way past large men hoping for
> the rewards of a good cup run so we could take a trip to the Villa
> Borghese and some nice Italian cuisine as our spring break.  Even
> aspiration such as this gets poisoned when some restaurant manager
> starts ploughing time-expired food back into the quality control
> system to make the bonus that sends her to Ibiza for a week and kills
> a couple of customers.
>
> On 2 Nov, 08:49, rigsy03 <rigs...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > No. But you do.
>
> > I don't understand why you think you can dispense with hierarchy? Or
> > do you consider that an Aristotelian fallacy?
>
> > I apologize for introducing film noir and my leap from Bambi, Dumbo
> > and Snow White.
>
> > On Oct 31, 8:39 am, archytas <nwte...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > Sorry Gabs - I did leave the Aristotle space for rigsy - the above
> > > went to the 'tropes of democracy' thread.  Does rigsy's snowman always
> > > ring twice?
>
> > > On 31 Oct, 07:55, Allan H <allanh1...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > LOL my problem is Gabby I don't know how to bake..
> > > > Allan
>
> > > > Matrix  **  th3 beginning light
> > > > On Oct 31, 2012 8:39 AM, "gabbydott" <gabbyd...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > > Allan, just download the update for the milk and honey version and get
> > > > > over with it! Always the same complaints with you techy guys!
>
> > > > > On Wed, Oct 31, 2012 at 8:02 AM, Allan H <allanh1...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > > has the supreme court of Rigsy ruled that cookies must be supplied on
> > > > > demand??
> > > > > > Allan
>
> > > > > > On Wed, Oct 31, 2012 at 3:39 AM, rigsy03 <rigs...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > > > > >> You are all very sweet to wish me well but I am safely nestled in
> > > > > >> America's belly. I will join your collective wishes for the east coast
> > > > > >> as it is ruinous and very sad to track.//Catching up: the fall lawn
> > > > > >> clean-up and cut backs were the best ever- hope the snow service is
> > > > > >> the same later on. My daughter has scared me with visions of a sugar
> > > > > >> plum Christmas she remembers from her childhood forgetting that she
> > > > > >> has abscounded with most all the decorations- even to the cookie
> > > > > >> cutters! We'll work it out. Have been getting bedrooms and kitchen in
> > > > > >> gear for the holidays so there isn't a last minute rush/heart attack.
> > > > > >> This house is a riot- but that is another topic. A couple invitations-
> > > > > >> will go to one- a baby shower. Exit the momastery! And yes, Gabby, was
> > > > > >> thinking of the warm sun during these cloudy days and cold nights. Saw
> > > > > >> myself sitting in the desert- very strange. Love to all- be safe.
>
> > > > > >> On Oct 30, 7:53 pm, Molly <mollyb...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > >>> Yes, hope all is well for you rigsy.  In Detroit we have Sandy's wind
> > > > > and a
> > > > > >>> bit of rain and sleet, but nothing like NYC.  thinking of you with
> > > > > love.
>
> > > > > >>> On Tuesday, October 30, 2012 5:20:35 PM UTC-4, Allan Heretic wrote:
>
> > > > > >>> > sounds like you are really going to be needing your snow guy Rigsy,,
> > > > > >>> > heard WV had over a meter of snow fall  that must be a bitch.
> > > > > >>> > Allan
>
> > > > > >>> > On Tue, Oct 30, 2012 at 8:56 PM, gabbydott <gabb...@gmail.com
> > > > > <javascript:>>
> > > > > >>> > wrote:
> > > > > >>> > > You see, Neil, that's exactly why I thought we have Rigsy write the
> > > > > >>> > > abstract and make her come out of the kitchen after her snow guy
> > > > > had
> > > > > >>> > > done his job. You have spoiled it all now!
>
> > > > > >>> > > On Tue, Oct 30, 2012 at 11:25 AM, archytas <nwt...@gmail.com
> > > > > <javascript:>>
> > > > > >>> > wrote:
> > > > > >>> > >> I've just become a paradigm case of Bill's "bored traveller" -
> > > > > long
> > > > > >>> > >> weekend with an American friend in Rome looking at art entailing
> > > > > the
> > > > > >>> > >> Vatican (which didn't spontaneously combust) - Bernini etc.
> > > > >  There was
> > > > > >>> > >> a Hombeck on candle-light which will stick forever.  I got the
> > > > > >>> > >> impression Bernini could do something in static stone that would
> > > > > give
> > > > > >>> > >> the impression of a Jimmy Johnstone dribble (he was the best ever
> > > > > at
> > > > > >>> > >> this spectacle, if not the most effective player in modern soccer
> > > > > >>> > >> terms).  Couldn't get a coffee in the city that never sleeps at 3
> > > > > a.m.
> > > > > >>> > >> and ended-up in a Mcdonalds.  The place is a dreadful tourist
> > > > > rip-off
> > > > > >>> > >> and a week would have bankrupted us.  Flight home was delayed by
> > > > > an
> > > > > >>> > >> outbreak of Italian indolence and refusal to drive the bus to the
> > > > > >>> > >> plane.  Airport full of disgruntled Americans delayed by Sandy.
> > > > > >>> > >> Greece and Rome descend from slave economies and attitudes that
> > > > > work
> > > > > >>> > >> scars the soul.
> > > > > >>> > >> There was so much to see and it was so pleasant to walk I came
> > > > > home
> > > > > >>> > >> hobbling on a blister.
>
> > > > > >>> > >> Much biology is based on the economics of energy - we always seem
> > > > > to
> > > > > >>> > >> want explanation in terms of why an organism would expend the
> > > > > energy
> > > > > >>> > >> required to maintain an organ and so on.  Our brains and even
> > > > > memory
> > > > > >>> > >> need justification in energy terms.  Much of my own interest in
> > > > > the
> > > > > >>> > >> subject concerns desire to overcome its predestination - which
> > > > > these
> > > > > >>> > >> days would be talked about through the notion of co-evolution and
> > > > > its
> > > > > >>> > >> 'arms races'.  My own guess for a long time has been we need to
> > > > > >>> > >> organise work differently - I favour a federal Europe (World) of a
> > > > > >>> > >> free table with work as a shared obligation - but one always finds
> > > > > >>> > >> such opinion has been held before - one example here would be the
> > > > > >>> > >> Strasser brothers who organised the Nazis when Hitler came out of
> > > > > >>> > >> jail.  Politically I tend to think we are stuck in the hands of a
> > > > > >>> > >> rentier class much as in the inter-war years.
>
> > > > > >>> > >> I think some UFO-dreaming could help us understand this and even
> > > > > Star
> > > > > >>> > >> Trek touches the fringes.  We might, very un-art, start by
> > > > > wondering
> > > > > >>> > >> who cleans the toilets on the Enterprise.
>
> > > > > >>> > >> On 29 Oct, 19:02, gabbydott <gabbyd...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > >>> > >>> The Golden Way out of deference? Yes, that's probably the meaning
> > > > > >>> > >>> Molly is trying to convey. Thanks, Allan.
>
> > > > > >>> > >>> On Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 5:02 PM, Allan H <allanh1...@gmail.com>
> > > > > >>> > wrote:
> > > > > >>> > >>> > Gabby one of the major deference between me and christianity
> > > > > is I
> > > > > >>> > see
> > > > > >>> > >>> > God as what makes up my being,,  I do not see God as being else
> > > > > >>> > where.
> > > > > >>> > >>> > I am expected to live up to my beliefs not making excuses to
> > > > > justify
> > > > > >>> > >>> > violating those rules.
> > > > > >>> > >>> > Allan
>
> > > > > >>> > >>> > On Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 1:24 PM, gabbydott <
> > > > > gabbyd...@gmail.com>
> > > > > >>> > wrote:
> > > > > >>> > >>> >> Oh, hi Molly! Yes, it's true, I dared to read the bible on
> > > > > the same
> > > > > >>> > >>> >> level as fairy tales. My Protestant nature, I guess. Going
> > > > > out,
> > > > > >>> > >>> >> looking out, speaking out is part of that tradition too. What
> > > > > is it
> > > > > >>> > in
> > > > > >>> > >>> >> your life that makes you being different?
>
> > > > > >>> > >>> >> On Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 1:06 PM, Molly <mollyb...@gmail.com>
> > > > > >>> > wrote:
> > > > > >>> > >>> >>> Looking for God outside oneself can lead to magical gang
> > > > > gods at a
> > > > > >>> > level
> > > > > >>> > >>> >>> where only the fit and corrupt survive.  Many fairy tales are
> > > > > >>> > imbued with
> > > > > >>> > >>> >>> mystical thinking, including the bible.
>
> > > > > >>> > >>> >>> On Monday, October 29, 2012 5:20:17 AM UTC-4, gabbydott
> > > > > wrote:
>
> > > > > >>> > >>> >>>> I don't know why these far-away and up-above gods and
> > > > > godesses
> > > > > >>> > never
> > > > > >>> > >>> >>>> really made it into my heart. Maybe the down-to-earth fairy
> > > > > tales
> > > > > >>> > >>> >>>> resembled my surroundings much more. It gives me the creeps
> > > > > when
> > > > > >>> > >>> >>>> little street gangstas are referring to Nemesis and believe
> > > > > they
> > > > > >>> > have
> > > > > >>> > >>> >>>> got the key to the kingdom now.
>
> > > > > >>> > >>> >>>> On Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 4:35 AM, rigsy03 <rig...@yahoo.com>
> > > > > >>> > wrote:
> > > > > >>> > >>> >>>> > I pray to a God everyday but am not sure which one. He is
> > > > > male
> > > > > >>> > and
> > > > > >>> > >>> >>>> > seems helpful. Today he bolstered my strength rearranging
> > > > > some
> > > > > >>> > >>> >>>> > furniture then rebolstered me moving stuff back as it was.
> > > > > >>> > However, I
> > > > > >>> > >>> >>>> > cooked a hearty meal of steak, potatoes and asparagus for
> > > > > >>> > insurance.//
> > > > > >>> > >>> >>>> > I think the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses represent
> > > > > human
> > > > > >>> > nature
> > > > > >>> > >>> >>>> > and traits- really provide some valuable insights for mere
> > > > > >>> > mortals.
>
> > > > > >>> > >>> >>>> > On Oct 28, 12:45 pm, gabbydott <gabbyd...@gmail.com>
> > > > > wrote:
> > > > > >>> > >>> >>>> >> Ah Lee, by that
>
> ...
>
> read more »

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